The past few months I've been on a crazy project to create an eBay application for the iPhone, and until yesterday, I wasn't allowed to talk about it. I got the unique opportunity to demo onstage at an Apple event, and I ran the demo while Ken from the eBay mobile team did the presentation. I'm still not allowed to say much about the application, but I wanted to post some initial thoughts on it while I'm still coming down from the post-keynote high.
This is the first eBay mobile application that I actually use, and I am pretty picky. The platform that it is built on has much to do with why the application is so good, and why we were able to build it so quickly. Many people I spoke to at the show were very excited to get to use the application, and the fact that it will be FREE should make it very attractive to any current or potential eBay user.
I am pretty impressed with the iPhone SDK (again, not allowed to say much about it). Before creating the prototype, I had no experience with Objective C or Cocoa, and I was able to hack something together very quickly.
Note that I am still product manager for eBay Desktop. To get the iPhone project done the team of developers and designers worked in their "spare time" to get it done, and now that the demo is done I'll be going back to work on the next release of eBay Desktop.
Finally, here are some links with additional info on the app:
- Official eBay Mobile for iPhone page
- WWDC Keynote video (eBay demo is about 23 minutes in, after the Sega demo)
- Techcrunch video where I do a not very good job of pretending that eBay is isn't announcing anything at the show (scroll down about a page to the eBay section)
- Motley Fool article on the application
This sounds really impressive. I checked out the links and it seems like this is a great idea especially with it being free. I can't believe you had to do this all in your 'spare time'.
Posted by: i love bridal jewelry | June 18, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Alan -
Why doesn’t the eBay app log you off when you quit the app. It keeps you logged on even if you quit and shut the phone down. Seems like a security flaw to me … one that the Web site deals with by automatically logging you off when you quit. For obvious reasons, this is a *real* problem when your dealing with *mobile* phones!
There may be another problem as well. eBay automatically reset my password because they noticed that my acct had been “compromised.” When I pressed them on what the nature of the compromise was (something *I* did? something *they* did?) they said they could not say … it’s just an automatic “thing” that “happens.” They *did* confirm that this could have happened if I remain logged in for an extended period (more than a day?). This is *very* easy to do with the Iphone app.
Just an FYI.
Posted by: hsnyder | July 23, 2008 at 07:35 AM